Wednesday, 7 January 2009

spring is short



You do not come
On this moonless night.
I wake wanting you.
My breasts heave and blaze.
My heart burns up.

Ono no Komachi (9th century)





Think
how my heart leaps
when my trembling fingers
strike a match in the evening.

I lift my breasts
and inhale and exhale the sound of love
like the passionate daughter of a lighthouse keeper.

Fukao Sumako (1893-1974)






Pressing my breasts
I softly kick aside
the Curtain of mystery
How deep the crimson
of the flower here.

Yosano Akiko (1878-1942)







Spring is short
what is there that has eternal life
I said and
made his hands seek out
my powerful breasts.

Yosano Akiko






Note:
This post was inspired by the wonderful lotusgreen post on nakedness.
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23 comments:

  1. Mary-Laure7 January 2009 at 05:26

    What a special, special post... The first poem hit me hard in the heart for very personal reasons and brought tears to my eyes. The photographs are divine. THANK YOU.

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  2. Anonymous7 January 2009 at 15:42

    aici deci voiam a scrie.
    sunt cu adevarat fantastice aceste poze.
    prima din ele este un nud cum rar am vazut.
    cocheteaza cu genialitatea si perfectiunea.
    ma tot uit de o zi la el si nu pot sa ma opresc.
    cred ca o sa revin des la el.
    multumesc pentru astfel de clipe!

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  3. Manuela7 January 2009 at 18:02

    so much sadness...

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  4. Marion McCready8 January 2009 at 01:07

    what can I say, the pictures are beautifully done but they make me blush! lol

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  5. Roxana8 January 2009 at 17:40

    Mary-Laure, I thank _you_ for telling me this, it means so much to me. and it is true, I also can hardly bear to read Ono no Komachi...

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  6. Roxana8 January 2009 at 17:41

    dan, ma coplesesti cu aceste cuvinte. si nici nu stiu cum sa-ti multumesc pentru faptul ca te uiti la imaginile mele in acest fel...

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  7. Roxana8 January 2009 at 17:50

    Manuela, I think there is sadness only in the first poem, no? In the other three love is celebrated, and erotic fulfillment. Especially in Yosano Akiko's case, I am still amazed at the courage she had writing so overtly about her own sexuality in that age's Japan. this is an excerpt from an essay about her work, by Hiromi Tsuchiya Dollase:

    The image of women that Yosano Akiko illustrated in her poems was revolutionary; it was far from the conventional picture of women. The women Akiko depicted were lively, free, sexual and assertive. They do not passively wait for men to find them. They are the agents of their love – they find love and pursue it. Akiko's seductive and sexual poems were sensational at the time, for they challenged patriarchal society and literary and cultural conventions. Akiko's works received severe criticism, yet also provided great inspiration to women of the time.

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  8. Roxana8 January 2009 at 17:51

    sorlil, blush? :-) but I think in this case the words are much stronger and more evocative than the images...

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  9. James Owens8 January 2009 at 19:25

    A lot of the eroticism of these images (I wonder if you would use that phrase?) comes from the tension between their stillness here before us and an implied narrative. This is not true of all photos, not even of all erotic photography. Wonderful.

    Thank you for bringing Akiko to my attention. I'm seeking her out now.

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  10. edith8 January 2009 at 19:57

    Prima e excelenta!!!

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  11. Roxana8 January 2009 at 21:59

    Akiko is wonderful, but unfortunately there are only very few poems of hers on the net.

    I like to hear you talk about my pictures. Most of the time, I can't say anything about them. And it is good so.

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  12. Roxana8 January 2009 at 22:00

    Multumesc, Edith!

    (ce nume frumos ai. am scris candva o povestire si fata se numea edith)

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  13. Dungha9 January 2009 at 11:51

    EXCELENT LUCRAT!

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  14. Roxana9 January 2009 at 17:38

    multumesc, Dungha!

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  15. Ffflaneur11 January 2009 at 14:35

    the poetic texture of skin

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  16. Roxana11 January 2009 at 19:28

    yes, fff, I knew you would be sensitive to that :-)

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  17. mansuetude12 January 2009 at 20:14

    stunning heart here.

    these poems
    and that second image for me, as if a zen writting of the text of life on the body, the sensual heart.

    i don't want nor need more right now, only these impression.

    thanks to you and your silence, i think it is talking too now with you.

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  18. Roxana13 January 2009 at 23:33

    yes, mansuetude, zen writting of the text of life on the body, I have thought that too. the second one is also my favourite.

    thank you for making me the gift of your sensitivity...

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  19. iosif bogdan14 January 2009 at 11:16

    prea multe cuvinte!
    simplu : excelent lucrat/asociat!

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  20. Roxana15 January 2009 at 15:50

    multumesc de trecere si de apreciere, i.b.!

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  21. marius grozea31 March 2009 at 16:39

    just wow!

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  22. Roxana31 March 2009 at 16:40

    marius, :-)

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  23. Anonymous7 April 2012 at 23:39

    ah beautiful Roxana, this is breathtakingly beautiful, -the nuturing maternal breasts the sacrificial floral blossoming offering to the universe.

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